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Friday, March 11, 2011

Boosting Your Business When the Economy is Slow

When the economy is slow and you need to boost business, it is the little things that can make the biggest difference for your flower shop. Little effects geared toward making it easier for your customers to shop at your store. In a slow economy competition is fierce. Give customers a little more attention and ease of shopping your flower shop and they will appreciate it and keep coming back. Little things definitely will increase the value of your reputation.

Have you ever sat outside a store, forced to wait for the next 5 or 10 minutes until the store unlocks the door? You know the employees are right there and they could let you in. They are on the clock already getting paid, what are they waiting for? A magical time? They wait until straight up at 9:00, or whatever the magical time is, then unlock the door. Already animosity has set in and how is that customer going to have a positive shopping experience? Have a 10 minute rule. Open your business 10 minutes before scheduled opening time and close 10 minutes after your scheduled closing time. Your employees will be answering the phones and have the doors opened 10 minutes before your floral shop is scheduled to open. The doors will remain open and the phones will still be answered 10 minutes after scheduled closing time. As a customer and a shopper, how many times would this have helped you? Many, I am guessing. Great tip for success, that will make customers very pleased. The next time they need a floral product, your flower shop will be remembered. It will be a small, extra expense for your shop, but the additional orders and goodwill you will receive will worth the effort.

In times when money is tight, you and your flower shop are still trying to make a buck. When a customer comes in to order flowers, do not sell them the cheapest arrangement you can find just because they are on a budget. This could be insulting to your customer. Offer them 3 different choices; a sort of price range if you will. If you offer your floral customer a choice of price ranges they will most often take the middle price. Therefore, you have not sold them the cheapest costing product. You have already made more money than you would have on the sell. Furthermore, your customer felt like he/she had options, and they selected the option that did not appear to make them feel like the cheapest, leading them to feel better about the whole sale. By giving the customer several selections, it subtly directed them away from the least expensive purchase. Everyone wins!!

What about your customer satisfaction policy. Have you reviewed it lately? Maybe you should. Happy customers are vital to a business in a slow economy. It means their limited dollars will get spent in your flower shop when the need arises, versus the shop down the street or the supermarket. You definitely do not want to steer your customers to the grocery store for flowers!! So develop an iron-clad satisfaction policy. Make it hassle-free, to the point, and the customer is always right. If you have been in business for a long time, or plan to be, sooner or later you may have a customer satisfaction problem. If you want to keep that customer you need to quickly turn their dissatisfaction into a gratified patron.

This is where you can set yourself apart from your competitors. Now would be the time to show that you are willing to do whatever it takes to make a contented customer. You also want to express to them that they are valuable to you and you will keep them at all costs. Adjustments to the client’s negative problem will actually become a positive, because you will have displayed your shop’s creative ability to solve problems and hopefully create goodwill. This will actually strengthen customer loyalty and increase spending. A hassle-free satisfaction policy can add monies to your bottom line. Whatever the problem, fix it quickly, at all expense!!

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Word of Encouragement

Follow your dream. If you have always wanted to open a flower shop, then DO IT! Do not let anyone say it cannot be done or it will not work. Do not listen. Really follow your heart. If you think you can, if you know you can, then do it!! If I had listened to naysayers, I would still be sitting around wishing and hoping. Once you "just do it", then you know. It is not what you do that you regret, it is what you do not do.